DVD shows more abuse of prisoners

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Washington: In a twist on the photographs that inflamed the
abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, a separate group
of US soldiers in Iraq shot a video of themselves beating prisoners
and using the body of a dead Iraqi to "wave hello".

The DVD, which soldiers derisively titled Ramadi Madness,
a reference to a turbulent city in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, was
released on Friday.

An internal investigation determined that the footage "contained
inappropriate rather than criminal behaviour", according to
military records. Investigators later claimed the DVD had been
destroyed by an officer who learned of the internal investigation.
The American Civil Liberties Union said that no criminal charges
were ever filed.

In another case, an army intelligence sergeant who accused
fellow soldiers in Samarra of abusing prisoners in 2003 was in turn
accused by his commander of being delusional and ordered to undergo
a psychiatric evaluation in Germany.

The soldier had told his commander three members of the
counter-intelligence team had hit prisoners, pulled their hair,
tried to asphyxiate them and staged mock executions with pistols
pointed at the prisoners' heads.

The investigation was among thousands of military documents the
civil liberties group obtained in a lawsuit seeking information on
detention practices.

Up to 20 members of Britain's Special Air Service have
threatened to resign because one of the regiment's soldiers has
been charged with murder.

The charge came after a lengthy investigation into a shooting on
January 1 last year in Basra.

But the decision is said to have caused a crisis of morale
within the SAS, with 20 soldiers telling their commanding officer
that they will quit and return to their original regiments if he is
tried in either a civilian or military court and found guilty of
murder.